Nepal

Two earthquakes hit Nepal on 25 April and 12 May 2015, killing an estimated 8,500 people and injuring another 20,000.

After the first 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, MSF teams quickly arrived in the country and focused on reaching the people living in remote mountainous areas. The earthquake’s epicentre was in Gorkha district, 80 kilometres west of Kathmandu.

MSF ran a system of helicopter clinics to provide healthcare and hospital referrals for emergency cases. Regular clinics were conducted in villages spread across Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha districts. Their focus, in accordance with the needs expressed by the communities, was children under the age of five, pregnant women and mental healthcare.

In Arughat, Gorkha district, MSF set up a 20-bed inflatable hospital with an operating theatre, and emergency, maternity and resuscitation rooms. This replaced the local healthcare centre that had been destroyed by the earthquake until the Ministry of Health was able to open a semi-permanent structure at the end of June.

MSF also set up a temporary tented clinic in Chhapchet, Dhading district, an area that was severely affected. Staff provided basic healthcare and carried out minor surgical interventions, for example on patients whose wounds had become infected.

MSF teams were already operational by the time the second earthquake struck on 12 May, and were able to start providing healthcare in the hours that followed.